The streetscape project started in the spring. Waterfront redeveloper Asbury Partners is paying for the improvements.

Before the project got underway, Brian Cheripka of Asbury Partners said this section of Cookman “[did] not encourage people to walk from the [downtown] central business district to the waterfront. Between the old buildings boarded up, and the general lack of upkeep, it [discouraged] people from making that connectivity.”

The work area stretches from Grand Avenue to Kinsgley Street along Cookman Avenue, as well as some other nearby streets near Kingsley. Vacant buildings have now been demolished, new sidewalks installed and new shrubbery planted at intersections. The only occupied building on this stretch of Cookman is the Wesley Grove condominiums. Cheripka also said a 15-feet-wide “green edge” will be installed on Cookman when the project is completed. That means the area will see new curbing and grass in the five feet from the curb to the sidewalk, new sidewalks almost five feet wide and new fill and grass for another five feet beyond the sidewalk.

Meanwhile, at Cookman Avenue’s intersections with Heck Street and Monroe Avenue, additional plantings and evergreen-like material have been installed.

“The goal is to create visual focal points,” Cheripka said. “You then look down Cookman Avenue toward the waterfront and it becomes a more pedestrian-friendly environment.”

Cheripka is vice president of land for iStar Financial, which took over Asbury Partners in 2010, after the former owners of Asbury Partners defaulted on loans made to it by iStar. The financial services company has installed Cheripka in Asbury Park to oversee the waterfront redevelopment project.